Uses In Medicine And Pharmacology

Decades ago, researchers showed that a gene in baculoviruses could be replaced through genetic engineering with genes for other proteins. When insect cells are infected with these modified viruses, the cultures can produce a large quantity of the protein. This technique—the baculovirus expression vector system—has facilitated a new use for insect cell cultures for the production of vaccines, growth factors, and other materials useful in medicine. Over 1800 articles have been published on the use of insect cells to produce various recombinant proteins.